UW Major: Mechanical Engineering
CEO, Neptuno Pumps
Executive Director, Center of Innovation and Circular Economy
Creator and Host, Revolución Circular Podcast
When Petar Ostojic thinks back to his time at the UW, his most vivid memories include biking through snow, sitting by Lake Mendota, and taking note of the green plants in spring. In short, he remembers being amazed by all the fresh water in Wisconsin.
By contrast, Ostojic grew up in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world with an average rainfall of less than 0.5 inches, compared to Madison’s lush annual 37 inches. While in college in Chile, Ostojic spotted a flyer for a scholarship sponsored by the late UW professor Eduardo Neale-Silva MA’28, PhD’35, who funded science and technology students from his home country to finish their degrees at the UW. Ostojic applied, won, and moved to Madison for an immersive experience in both humidity and sustainable tech.
“I’d never seen the importance of a planet-level view or sustainability before then, but Madison is so into this stuff, and it was so early for those conversations in Latin America,” he says. “Madison was a place that planted the seed of sustainability for me, of the importance of nature and our environment and how science and engineering can make a difference.”
After graduation, Ostojic returned to his hometown of Iquique to take on a leadership role in his family’s business, which had evolved from his grandparents’ candle factory to a pump manufacturer for the mining industry. Ostojic offered a new vision for the future: to produce pumps refashioned from recycled industrial parts. Neptuno Pumps is now a multimillion-dollar company with a global reputation for being 100 percent circular in its manufacturing practices, meaning the company eliminates waste in every step of its processes.
Neptuno’s success in reducing industrial waste garnered Ostojic several invitations from other businesses and government agencies to speak about the importance of growing Latin America’s manufacturing sector with circular, sustainable practices built in from the very beginning. In 2017, he founded the Center of Innovation and Circular Economy — the first of its kind in the region — to advocate formally for policy changes and enhanced sustainability in corporate practices in Chile, Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, and Argentina.
Ostojic quickly learned to embrace his new role as “circular-economy storyteller,” thanks in no small part to his parents’ passion for art and literature, which significantly influenced his childhood. “My parents’ house has more than 5,000 books. Historians, poets, and people from the liberal arts came to our house when I was a kid,” he says. “I was always drawing cartoons and telling stories, so storytelling was always a huge, huge part of me.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Ostojic’s in-person speaking engagements were put on hold. To keep the conversation going, he launched a podcast called Revolución Circular, which now connects hundreds of sustainability-minded entrepreneurs and innovators across Latin America.
“What is going on in Chile now is amazing,” he says. “We’re one of the most conscious countries in the world in terms of circularity and mixing technology and sustainability. And I’m really proud to have put a little grain of salt on this.”
Or, perhaps, a drop of water.
